Join the ladies of the Hell’s Belles Car Club SF for their 6th Annual Pinewood Derby & Silent Art Auction!

Saturday, September 24, 2011

at 941Geary Gallery

Benefit for the Bay Area Women’s & Children’s Center (www.bawcc.org)

Doors open at 6:00, races start at 8:00.

Free admission, fun for all ages!

The Hell’s Belles are celebrating their sixth year of hosting their Pinewood Derby, we want to make this year’s event the biggest success yet! We are currently accepting artist donations for entry in the silent auction. No matter what your usual style, this is your chance to get down with classic car culture. This means pinups, tattoos, tikis, pin striping, hot rods, and most importantly: vintage. Anything and everything retro will fly, so take a stroll back to the 40s, 50s and 60s for inspiration. All proceeds from the auction will go to charity.

You can also race your own custom Pinewood Derby car on the track or show off an art car! Prizes awarded for both RACE car and SHOW car categories. All art pieces donated for auction must be ready for hanging, so please contact Hell’s Belles in advance for large pieces (over 3.5′ square) or if special consideration is needed for display. Submitted artwork should include your name, contact information, and title on the back. Every medium is welcome, as past auctions have included watercolors, photographs, giclee prints, oil paintings, woodblock prints, t-shirts, pinstriped purses, customized Chuck Taylors and more. Artists are welcome to retrieve any artwork that does not sell within one week of the event.

For more information, including how to purchase your official Pinewood Derby car kit to enter into the event, click http://www.hellsbellescarclub.com/events/events.html

Or email

jamie@hellsbellescarclub.com

(Since children will be present at the event, please consider this when working with adult themes. If you have any questions about the appropriateness of your piece, please contact us ASAP. The Belles reserve the right to refuse any artwork that is not appropriate for this event.)

New Works by Aron Meynell And The Project Room by Erik Otto

White Walls is pleased to present New Works by Aron Meynell, a series of oil paintings by the San Francisco based artist, and The Project Room by Erik Otto. This will be Meynell’s premier exhibition with White Walls, as well as his first solo show. Erik has previously shown in Shooting Gallery, White Walls, and 941 Geary. The opening reception will be Saturday, August 6, from 7-11 pm, and the exhibition is free and open to the public for viewing through August 27.

This body of work portrays the quiet and uncertain world of abandoned figures in insecure eerie environments, and the discovery of beauty and comfort within them. Meynell uses sleep and hibernation as a place for his characters to work out discomforts, and to find the treasures left behind from the decayed and neglected existence. There is a contrast and balance of figures that do not belong together in an isolated environment with rusted machinery, and graphic figures from illustrations of children’s stories. The characters in Aron’s narratives are no longer concerned with the nakedness and the feelings that isolation can bring; instead they are released from the impurities and find freedom in the unknown. The artist will be showcasing 12 pieces all done with oil on canvas, and varying in size.

Meynell was born in Birmingham, England, but was raised in Detroit, Michigan. He received his bachelors in fine art at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. Aron continued his education at the Academy of Art San Francisco where he received his masters in fine art. In Detroit Aron found inspiration in the muted colors of the empty factories and high-rises once filled by the thriving automobile industry. As a child the artist loved to explore the corners of city’s surrounding forests, and found relics in left behind machinery and cars.

Erik Otto is a San Francisco based artist exhibiting four new large-scale pieces. The Project Room is a departure from Otto’s normal usage of house paint and spray paint, to an emphasis on paper and paint collage. The work will be focused on the building and tearing away of different mediums, and a more abstract visual experience. The collaged pieces will be 4 ft by 4ft making them some of the largest pieces Erik has shown. The Project Room is a evolving concept for Otto, which will show case his new ideas and the continuing effort of new development and discovery.

A statement from the artist:

“I hope to evolve and continue working on the same concepts and ideas, but pursuing new directions and methods of practice”.

Erik Otto received his BFA from San Jose State University and currently lives and works in San Francisco, California. He has recently been commissioned by Dwell Magazine for their Dwell on Design show as well as Microsoft for their Seattle Headquarter. In 2009 Otto was awarded a residency with Recology San Francisco and will be exhibiting in their 20 Year Anniversary Show in July 2010. The artist has shown nationally with The Shooting Gallery, Fabric 8 Galleries and
Charmingwall Gallery.

Chor Boogie & Apex have colorful masterpieces up at 1001 Market that are too good to not share! See the full set of photos at the San Francisco Arts Comission Flickr!

D Young V has his designs on t-shirts available through Fiftyseven-Thirtythree Apparel. Fiftyseven-Thirtythree is an Oakland-based shop that uses water based, solvent free inks and supports independent artists. Sweatshop-free, green screen-printing techniques and these awesome designs by D Young V, what’s not to like!

More Photos After the Jump Read more »

We are so excited to have White Walls featured in Lonely Planet’s “Guide to the World’s Best Free Attractions” alongside such world-renowned attractions like the Tate Modern, the Gateway of India in Mumbai and St. Peter’s Basilica.

Take a look at the full guide here and the current show D Young V’s Make an Effort here!

D Young V makes his mark on Treasure Island in this beautifully shot video by Colin M. Day. It’s fascinating to hear that the man-made island was built from the rubble of the 1906 earthquake to host the 1939 World’s Fair. The island later became a naval base and now serves mainly as a place of residential housing. Take a peek at the current condition of the island, the future plans of transformation planned for it and see D Young V’s wheatpastes being added to the landscape:

Casey Gray has a new mixtape available for July. We’ve been checking back and are glad to see it’s arrival! Have a listen to all seventeen tracks here and keep an eye out for upcoming posts about Casey Gray’s October show Style of Eye at White Walls!

Colin M. Day‘s video takes a look at the concept behind D Young V’s Make an Effort at White Walls. In it you get to see D Young V’s partnership with Shaun Roberts in photo shoots of local artists, with these images later being used as photo reference for many of the pieces in the show. D Young V explains how he incorporated hand prints into the work, allowing the artists to shape the work even more fully with their identity, their individual presence. It is obvious that much time, much thought, and a great effort went into D Young V’s show and it’s wonderful to get a better insight into the behind-the-scenes parts of it.

D Young V has two prints currently on sale at White Walls for his elaborate and superbly crafted show Make an Effort, on display until July 30th.

2 Color Screenprint on Paper, Edition of 50,18×24″

$30.00 USD

View the second print after the jump! Read more »

D Young V‘s artist talk, held in conjunction with the Lower Polk Art Walk last night, was a great success! White Walls quickly filled with a crowd eager to learn more about the ideaology behind Make an Effort and the process that went into it. D Young V was quick to elaborate on any detail he was questioned about, even telling the audience during a moment of pause “I’ve still got more answers!”

More Photos After the Jump! Read more »